


Love As Strong As Stone

by Ahhuya



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Rapunzel takes the moonstone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23106787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahhuya/pseuds/Ahhuya
Summary: The stone opens up to Rapunzel. The cage it built for itself falls apart. It begs for her to touch it, so loud that Eugene can almost hear it too. He follows every movement the princess makes, each careful step and the reach in her fingers. Hand meets stone and the vault falls silent. The stone lays in Rapunzel’s hands when she turns to him one more time and smiles. Then her hair comes alive once more, surrounding her and the stone. After that, Eugene isn’t sure what happens. The room explodes in light.Taking the moonstone is Rapunzel’s destiny. And she does, Eugene learns that his is to stay alone forever.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 7
Kudos: 38





	Love As Strong As Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Of all the fics I wished to write after TTS ended, this one didn't leave my mind alone. Guess writing some angst is always good for the soul.

The stone opens up to Rapunzel. The cage it built for itself falls apart. It begs for her to touch it, so loud that Eugene can almost hear it too. He follows every movement the princess makes, each careful step and the reach in her fingers. Hand meets stone and the vault falls silent. The stone lays in Rapunzel’s hands when she turns to him one more time and smiles. Then her hair comes alive once more, surrounding her and the stone. After that, Eugene isn’t sure what happens. The room explodes in light.

The shockwave must have destroyed the bridge of black rocks, because he wakes on the ground with a splitting headache. The stone underneath him is smooth marble and it takes a moment to understand why it’s there. The black rocks that had pointed at the stone as a final defense, sharp and ready to impale those falling down the thin bridge, are gone.

When Eugene looks up, the bridge is gone as well. So are all the other rocks that were in the room, and the moonstone itself. There are sounds above him, people calling out to him, to Cassandra and to Rapunzel.

Rapunzel, Eugene thinks, she was the closest to the shockwave. He needs to find her. But when he tries to get up, the pain in his head flares up again. He’s forced to keep his head hanging low, eyes cast to the black marble as a rope is thrown down. He doesn’t know how Edmund manages to get down with one arm, but before he knows it, he can feel the king’s strong hand on his shoulder.

“You did it, Horace.” Edmund says, “The moonstone is no longer.”

That should be good. There’s even a tint of pride in Edmund’s voice, if that means anything. But it doesn’t calm Eugene in the slightest.

“Where is Rapunzel?” Eugene asks. “Is she okay?”

Edmund looks away, and this time, Eugene’s eyes focus enough to follow his gaze. He sees Cassandra first, also on the ground, with Adira at her side. Behind her, in the same spot where the moonstone once stood, floats a stone above the ground. Yellow and blue intertwine within the stone. It seems alive under the radiance of its golden glow. Rapunzel is nowhere to be seen. There is no ruble on the ground that could have buried her. The black rocks are gone.

“She gone, son.” Edmund says, his voice heavy. “She disappeared with the moonstone. They’re one now.”

“No…” Eugene whispers as he pushes himself up from the ground. On unsteady legs, he walks to the stone. Cassandra calls out to him, Adira lets him pass, and Eugene doubts Lance would try to stop him here.

He tries to reach out to the stone, but the surrounding glow burns his gloves away. Before he can try again with his bare hands, Edmund stops him.

“It’s too powerful, don’t try.” Edmund says. It is there that everything sinks in.

“Leave me alone.” Eugene says. “Go.” Louder this time. Edmund knew this would happen. He had even told Eugene it could happen, and Eugene realizes he should have listened to him. He couldn’t have kept her out, but he could have grabbed the stone before she did. But he didn’t, and now she’s paid the price.

Reluctantly, Edmund walks away. His low voice sinks to the background, where it soon disappears under the sound of Eugene’s own sobs. Eugene can’t remember the last time he let himself cry in the open, but today, he doesn’t stop for hours.

**…**

He doesn’t leave the vault. Leaving it on his own would mean Rapunzel isn’t coming back and he isn’t ready to accept that. A part of him wishes for her voice to sing to him again, to make the clock reverse and put her back in his arms again.

He wants to take his anger and sadness out on Edmund. Yell at him that he shouldn’t have let Rapunzel anywhere near that stone. But he doesn’t. Edmund isn’t to blame for any of this. He _had_ warned him after all. He blocked of the entire kingdom for it. Which would leave Adira to blame. Adira brought them here, told Rapunzel about this destiny and planted the idea so deep in her head that nothing could stop her. He wishes he could take everything out on Adira, but the woman is smart enough to stay away from the vault. And the last bit of reason in Eugene’s mind knows that even without Adira, Rapunzel would have followed to rocks to here.

It leaves no one to blame but himself. Every second he watches the stone through his tears, is a second where he mumbles empty apologies to Rapunzel. He doubts she can hear him. It’s never the ghosts of the best people that come back, and if anything, Eugene hopes she’s moved on the moment the stone took her life.

Rapunzel’s destiny was to die along with the stones, and right there, Eugene realizes his is to stay alone.

**…**

Cassandra is the first person to enter the vault again. Eugene doesn’t know how much time has passed. Even if Cassandra brings him food, he isn’t hungry. There are no snarky remarks to each other, because apparently even Cassandra’s cold heart has some warmth in it.

“Ulf came with a balloon. There’s trouble in Corona. We leave in an hour” She tells him as she shits with him.

“I’m not going back.” Eugene tells her and shoves the bread she’s brought away.

“She wouldn’t want you to be like this. She would want you to keep living.” Cassandra says. There isn’t much to argue about it. He got his second chance at life because of her.

“I want to stay with her.”

“She’s gone, Eugene.” Cassandra whispers, the words too heavy to still be spoken out loud.

“There’s nothing left for me in Corona then.” He sighs. The stone glistens in the dark. He can’t face the king and queen like this either. He can’t bring them the news. He has no place to stay if Rapunzel isn’t there to keep him company. “This is my home.”

“We’ll come back for you when Corona is safe. You better still be alive by then.” She says. Eugene wants to tell her not to come back, to forget about him in the time it takes to travel home. Instead he lowers his head and looks at his bare hands. It’s cold without his gloves. He hasn’t tried to grab the stone again. All there is to do is to protect it and take his place in the castle to do so. Edmund will happy about it. At least one person will be.

Cassandra leaves him at that. Lance comes down for a goodbye a few minutes later. They sit in front of the stone together, reminiscing. Ulf’s balloon doesn’t wait. It can’t. Any hour wasted in an abandoned kingdom, is another hour lost for the future of Corona.

Lance offers to stay in the Dark Kingdom as well. An offer Eugene refuses, for his own and Adira’s sanity. He loves Lance, and that’s why he can’t stay. He tells him so. Someone needs to look after Red and Angry, as well as the prime spot of reformed thief.

The first time Eugene goes out of the vault is to see his friends of. It’s empty, traversing the halls of the castle. Holes are present in the walls where the black rocks used to keep the structure. Adira and Edmund are already outside with the balloon when Lance and Eugene arrive. It’s an understanding exchange of nods between them.

“Stay strong, Fitzherbert. Know you can always come home.” Cassandra tells him before firing the balloon.

He forces a smile on his face for her, despite how much it hurts to do so. “I already am.” He says to himself when they’re far in the sky. Once they’re out of sight, he turns to his father again. He might as well accept that part if he wishes to stay.

“Come Horace.” Edmund says as he wraps his arm around his son’s shoulders. “There is much to rebuild here.”

“Why Horace?” Eugene asks him, the name being foreign to him.

“It’s your birth name.” The king explains. “It’s who you were meant to be.”

And as much as Eugene hates it, it feels right. He was Flynn for himself, Eugene for Rapunzel, he’ll be Horace for no one. So, he walks back to the castle. There is no longer a moonstone to protect, but no one will ever touch the new stone.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to make this happier first, but it would become a project too big for me to handle at the moment. And as my partner told me when I texted them this idea "you already killed her, you better just learn to live with it now", and so I did.


End file.
